Data Mining
In January WCET (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies) successfully concluded the proof-of-concept phase of its work on the Predictive Analytics Reporting (PAR) Framework, a longitudinal data-mining project. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the PAR Framework employs predictive techniques commonly found in business to aid in educational decision making. The PAR Framework team and its partners created a single, federated dataset of anonymized student records, thanks to the contributions of six institutional partners, all WCET members, who worked together to create the dataset and to normalize 33 variables (and nine constructed variables) common to all of them.
The PAR Framework makes it possible to conduct predictive analyses of a massive collection of student records to better understand the variables affecting why students drop out or succeed in completing their programs. The ability to reliably predict behaviors and outcomes is enabled through the application of descriptive, inferential, and predictive tests and analyses on massive numbers of records that have been normalized around common data definitions. No such data set currently exists in American postsecondary education. The PAR Framework team has conducted a preliminary analysis, looking for patterns that provide new insights into our understanding of student loss and momentum. The analysis team is now working closely with institutional partners to explore intra- and inter-institutional data patterns and results.
Adult College Completion
The Adult College Completion (ACC) Network recently hosted a webinar on how data from the National Student Clearinghouse can assist in efforts to increase completion by adults with prior college credit. View slides from the presentation or listen to audio of the webinar on the ACC site.
Mental Health First Aid
In February WICHE’s Mental Health Program presented the results of a study of its mental health first aid training initiative—which teaches college students to recognize and respond to potential mental health crises—at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Mental Health Conference in Atlanta. The training involved some 470 resident advisors (RAs) on 33 campuses nationwide in the 2010-2011 school year. For the study, “Mental Health First Aid: Outcomes Evaluation Strategies,” conducted by WICHE and the University of Michigan School of Public Health and sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, more than 7,600 students participated in pre-test surveys in fall 2010 and over 5,300 participated in post-test surveys in spring 2011. The study found that RAs who were trained reported increased confidence in recognizing and responding to developing mental health problems and crises, had greater knowledge of mental illnesses, and had positive beliefs about treatment. Ninety-nine percent said they would recommend the training to others. For students who were not trained, there was no change in the use of mental health services, interactions with RAs regarding mental health, symptoms of mental illnesses, or use of campus counseling centers.
State Authorization Reciprocity
With the recent U.S. House of Representatives vote in favor of repealing the state authorization regulation, many institutional personnel are under the misconception that they don’t need to worry about this issue any longer. However, even if the bill were signed into law (which is doubtful), the action would not change state regulations: states will still expect institutions to comply with their laws. As has been the case previously, any postsecondary education institution offering distance education to students in a state in which it is not physically located must meet that state’s requirements for offering postsecondary education.
WCET has served as a national leader in helping system and institutional personnel comprehend the regulations and devise strategies for addressing them. And for institutions compliance with the laws of every state in which they operate presents a huge challenge. Last year the WICHE Commission was approached by members of the Western Academic Leadership Forum, which WICHE manages, and WICHE’s Legislative Advisory Committee for help with this situation. WICHE, at the encouragement of its commissioners, assembled a task force to forge a reciprocal agreement among WICHE states. The agreement will be based on the concept that once an institution is approved by its home state, it would be allowed to teach students at a distance in other states participating in the agreement. Because the agreement has to be finalized, passed into law in many states, and marketed, it will be the spring or summer of 2013 before the first institutions can benefit from reciprocity.
WICHE is also working with the other regional compacts and an effort headed by the Presidents’ Forum of Excelsior College and the Council of State Governments. If successful, any state or territory could join the agreement, and institutions in that state would be eligible for reciprocity in partnering states.
Better Transfer
The Interstate Passport Initiative, a two-year project funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, is working on a new transfer framework for the lower-division general education core, one based on learning outcomes rather than courses and credits. Twenty-eight two-year and four-year institutions in five Western states—California, Hawaii, North Dakota, Oregon, and Utah—are participating in the project’s pilot, coordinated by WICHE, which also serves as the fiscal agent. Over the next year, faculty and other stakeholders from these institutions will work with state facilitators to reach an intrastate agreement and then develop an interstate agreement. The facilitators are: Debra David, project director, Give Student a Compass initiative, California State University System, Office of the Chancellor; Richard Dubanoski, dean, College of Social Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Lisa Johnson, director of articulation and transfer, North Dakota University System; Karen Marrongelle, assistant vice chancellor for academic standards and collaborations, Oregon University System; and Phyllis “Teddi” Safman, assistant commissioner for academic affairs, Utah State Board of Regents. Robert Turner, the former assistant vice chancellor of the Oregon University System, is the pilot state coordinator, and WICHE staff member Pat Shea is the principal investigator. For more information, including contact details for the facilitators, visit the website or contact Cathy Walker, Passport project manager, at cwalker@wiche.edu.
Mixed Media
WICHE's Policy Analysis and Research unit has released Tuition and Fees in the West, a new Policy Insight covering our most recent survey of published tuition and fees prices in all public institutions in the West in 2011-12. The report summarizes those findings and addresses related state finance policies, including state budget levels and higher education appropriations and state financial aid programs.
Meeting Debriefing: Multistate Data Exchange
In January WICHE hosted its fifth working group session on the multistate data exchange project at a meeting in Boise. The meeting was characterized by significant progress on the data elements that will be exchanged, as well as some of the metrics that will be used to analyze the data (and key elements to serve as building blocks in those metrics). The group, which included strong participation by Idaho representatives, began digging into the workforce data that will be analyzed. Prior to the meeting, state agency leaders were invited to sign a memorandum of agreement to exchange data; signed agreements are expected to be in hand in the near future.
Upcoming Meetings
Two upcoming, back-to-back meetings in Phoenix, both open to the public, focus on education issues in the West. The Western Alliance of Community College Academic Leaders (the Alliance) holds its first annual meeting, themed “Change by Design @ EDU,” on April 17-18. Alliance’s members are the chief academic officers of community colleges and technical schools in the 15 WICHE states, along with their associated system and state agencies. The Western Academic Leadership Forum (the Forum) holds its annual meeting, themed “Academic Leadership in the West: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Innovation,” on April 18-20. Forum members are provosts of the four-year institutions and the chief academic officers of the related system and state agencies in the WICHE region. Plenary speakers at the Forum meeting include Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University; José Cruz from The Education Trust; Terry Hartle from the American Council on Education; and Diana Natalicio, president of the University of Texas El Paso. Henry Eyring, author of the recently published The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out, will discuss his book. For more information visit the Forum and Alliance websites.
Newscap March 2012
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